MADRID - Five people allegedly implicated in the May bomb attacks in Casablanca, Morocco were all members of a Spanish-based al-Qaeda terrorist cell, judicial sources here said on Monday.
The allegations support Rabat's claims that the attackers, though organised by a banned local Islamist group, had links to international extremist organisations, including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Two of the men were arrested in Morocco, one in Turkey and two in Spain at the request of Moroccan authorities who claimed they were linked to the five nearly simultaneous attacks on May 16 that killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers.
"All these people have been integrated for years in the cell of Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, alias Abu Dahdah," the judicial source said.
Yarkas was arrested on suspicion of being the ringleader of an Islamist fundamentalist cell which Spanish authorities dismantled in November 2001.
The cell is suspected of links to al-Qaeda and of having helped prepare the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001.
The five men are allegedly "implicated in the Casablanca attacks", according to a charge sheet issued last week by Spain's top anti-terrorist judge, Baltasar Garzon, against 35 people for membership of a terrorist organisation, namely al-Qaeda.
The suspects were identified as: Salaheddine Benyaich alias Abou Mouhgen and Moustafa Maymouni - both arrested in Morocco; Abdelatif Mourafik alias Malek the Andalusian or Malek the North African - arrested in Turkey, and Abdelaziz Benyaich (Abou Mouhgen's brother) and Driss Chebli, both arrested in Spain.
They are all of Moroccan origin.
Only three of the suspects - the Benyaich brothers and Chebli - have actually been charged by Garzon with membership of al-Qaeda. Chebli was also charged with "terrorist assassinations" for the September 11 attacks.
Garzon believes Chebli was the "direct link" between the Spanish cell and an Algerian named Mohamed Belfatmi, who is thought to have played an active role in preparing the September 11 attacks while residing in Spain.
While Morocco has said the Casablanca attacks were carried out by the banned Salafia Jihadia group, Rabat has repeatedly insisted that the suspects have ties to international extremist groups, including al-Qaeda.
Nearly 100 people are being prosecuted in Moroccan courts either for terror-related offences or for association with Salafia Jihadia. So far, 14 people have been sentenced to death.
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